User blog comment:Snowpaw the Wild/Snow's Answers/@comment-1209332-20100608192348

Aha!

BUT,

Page 370: "His enemy halted again, facing him, and the shadow about it [the Balrog] reached out like two vast wings." (Emphasis added).

Now, that's a simile, that is! The only other mention of the word wings in reference to the Balrog is on the next page, 371, just a paragraph after:

"...and its wings stretched from wall to wall..."

Now, Tolkein was a professor of language. If it had wings, then he would have put them in the description, not mention them off-hand immediatly after a simile which likened its shadow to wings! Obviously the second reference is also to the shadow! Its an extended metaphor, a common device.

QED